Conservatives are often baffled by liberals, finding it difficult to understand why they think and act as they do.

For example, why are liberals so fixated on confiscating the property of the well-to-do and successful and giving it to those less well off? History plainly shows that high taxation results in economic decline, while low taxation results in economic prosperity.

And why do liberals embrace, well, outright perversion, such as homosexuality and infanticide? Are they bereft of any moral foundation whatsoever?

One is tempted to just dismiss liberals as stupid, but obviously many highly intelligent people are liberals in today's sense of the word (as opposed to liberals in John F. Kennedy's day). I suggest two explanations for their destructive policies.

The first is that liberals tend to arrive at their conclusions by their hearts rather than their minds. One of the dumbest mantras in America today is to "trust your feelings," but that seems to be what liberals do.

It just feels right that those who have should share with those who do not, even if it is under compulsion. It just feels right that underachieving black students should get favored treatment by colleges at the expense of more-qualified white and Asian students, because of the discrimination their grandparents endured — no matter that during the civil rights movement of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. people died to end racial discrimination, not perpetuate it. It just feels right that homosexuals should be granted the privilege of marriage.

Liberals support big and intrusive government, foreign tyrants, Arab suicide bombers, pornography, lousy public education, and obstructing the constitutional nominating process for federal judges — certainly not positions resulting from clear thinking. That they are objectively wrong or destructive does not enter into liberal thinking, because it is based on feelings, not objective truth. Of course, acting on one's feelings can be a dangerous thing, particularly if one person feels like killing another. "I felt like it" is not going to get a defendant anything more than a conviction in a murder trial.

A second explanation is the accumulation of power. The Ted Kennedys and Hillary Clintons and Tom Daschles of the world have a tremendous thirst for power, and they know that promising voters government largesse will entice many to give up their rights in exchange. The wise are suspicious of those whose primary ambition is to control others.

When true conservatives listen to liberals talk of what the government is going to do for us, they are inclined to remember President Ronald Reagan's quip that some of the most frightening words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

But how liberals behave, particularly of late, perhaps is even more perplexing. To speak frankly, liberals behave like schoolyard hoodlums. They lie, twist and distort, and seem to stand for nothing more than tearing down what is good and moral about this nation, and subverting our constitutional and Christian heritage. They cleverly pander to minorities by indulging in discrimination by race while accusing conservatives of being racist.

There is an explanation for this, illustrated in recent comments by two prominent liberals.

The first was by University of Southern California law professor Susan Estrich, a frequent guest on television talk programs and the campaign manager of former Democrat presidential candidate Michael Dukakis. Responding to criticism of liberal campaign tactics she said, "You believe in principle. I believe in politics."

The second was by syndicated columnist Richard Reeves, who once expressed bemusement after watching a person give food to a homeless man, "a personal response to a clearly social problem." He writes, "I have talked to more than a few Democrats of prestige and position who have trouble hiding secret glee over bad economic numbers or even ambushes in Iraq."

There you have it. An admission that in the liberal camp politics trumps principle and bad news for America is good news for liberals, even if it involves the death of American soldiers (this from those who relentlessly pillory President George Bush for putting our military in harm's way).

In considering the above, it is impossible to arrive at any conclusion but this: Liberals abandon thinking for feeling and thus make bad choices and pass ill-advised legislation. They are unprincipled, calculating and devious. Liberals covet power, fight dirty and seem to love all things debased, but they surely do not love America or Americans. Is there any doubt as to why conservatives look at them with such undisguised disdain?